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The 5 Best Reasons For Buying The Xbox One Instead Of A PS4

It’s November, and that means that nextnext-gen consoles are finally on their way. Both consoles have their strengths and weaknesses, and both consoles are going to appeal to different kinds of gamers. In that spirit, I’m running a mini-series on whether you should by the Xbox One, the PS4, or neither. Check out yesterday’s post on the argument for the PS4, and check back tomorrow for why you might be better off with neither.

Cloud: SonySony may have bought Gaikai, but MicrosoftMicrosoftis Microsoft. As this generation continues, we’re going to see the true benefits of having the resources of one of the largest tech companies in the world backing your console. “Project Mountain” is a $700 million data center built for Xbox One and Office 365, and more games will take advantage of that computing power as time goes on. In the early days, expect to see the full benefits of Microsoft’s cloud services in games like Titanfall — the developer explains what they’re capable of here.

A lot of gamers would argue that Xbox Live was the more reliable multiplayer service in the last generation, so Sony’s got some catching up to do. The fact that PSN is now a paid service suggest that it’s working on it, but for right now I’d bank on Xbox Live for better matchmaking and more reliable multiplayer.

Kinect: The Kinect never quite found its footing on the Xbox 360, but Microsoft believes in this technology. It’s a fully-featured depth sensing camera that, in my limited time with it so far, appears to be a huge improvement over the previous generation. If you want to do P90x with your Xbox, you can do that. If you want to use dragon shouts by actually shouting or command your squad with your voice, you can do that too. And I’ve got a feeling that the best uses of the Kinect are yet to come. It’s odd, new, and still brimming with potential. Why not take a chance on the future?

Next-gen shouldn’t just be about playing the same old games with fancy new graphics. This is hardware that can really change the way we interact with games, and that’s worth exploring.

Controller: The Dualshock 4 is a big improvement over the Dualshock 3, but the Xbox controller is still a beautiful little piece of industrial design. The Xbox One controller doesn’t fix what isn’t broken, but it builds on the now classic design in every way. Offset analog sticks remain a great way to game, and rumbling triggers actually make the experience feel different. It’s also better balanced, and has an improved d-pad. We’ve come a long way since the dinner plates.

For shooter fans especially — a giant chunk of the gaming public — the Xbox controller design is tested, successful, and worth sticking with. In an industry dominated by cross-platform titles, some of the biggest differences between these two consoles are not on the screen, but in your hand. Controller preference is a bigger deal than it appears.

Exclusives: Software sells hardware. Titanfall is probably the next-gen game that has generated more buzz than any other, and it’s not coming to PS4. On day one we get Lococycle, Ryse, Dead Rising, Forza, Fighter Within and Crimson Dragon. Quantity-wise, that’s a little more to play with than on the PS4. In the future, I’m very curious to see what Project Spark can bring to the table — it looks something like Microsoft’s answer to Littlebigplanet.

On top of that, Halo fans around the world have likely already made their decision based on that franchise alone. Exclusives come down to a matter of taste, and Sony performed very well towards the end of last generation. This, however, is a whole new ball game, and Microsoft is coming out swinging.

Entertainment: Much to the chagrin of gamers everywhere, Microsoft chose to focus on TV and entertainment options in its Xbox One reveal rather than games. But by now, we know that the system has games and, exclusives aside, they’re a lot of the same games the PS4 has. A wealth of entertainment options, complete with Kinect controls, represent a valuable expansion to the capabilities that Microsoft slowly added to the Xbox 360 over the course of the previous generation. Microsoft’s partnerships with the likes of Time Warner CableTime Warner Cable, Verizon Fios, ComcastComcast Xfinity and the NFL make this a very attractive option to gamers with cable. Plus, a Halo series produced by Spielberg is hard to argue with.

Add in MP3 support, DLNA streaming and audio CDs, and Xbox One can handily serve as an entertainment hub for the whole living room. I play games as much as anyone, but I still use my console for a whole lot of other things. It’s worth making those things a priority as well.

There are more reasons to like the Xbox One, and other reasons to dislike it (again, covered in the PS4 post). An honorable mention goes to the little noise the Xbox makes when you get an achievement.

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bahaha…I’ll be to busy playing my PS4 next week to debate it again sorry ;). This is what kills me about media, just make a feature article about why you may want to purchase an Xbox 1 and not why “it” over another console. Honestly at this point they are not really a similar comparison at all. Xbox is Xbox(Glorified Cablebox with a Camera) and Playstation is Playstation(Mainly just a video game system w/ some entertainment features).

I use my Kinect and 360 for loads of entertainment- so they are good reasons for the Xbox One, for me. Also, the controller is a lot better for shooting games. However, I enjoy fighting games much more than FPS, and the P S controller is so much better for my bitty hands that it’s really a no brainer. I’m definitely getting the PS4 first, and perhaps the Xbox One when the next Dance Central comes out. c:

Battlefield 4 is 900P on PS4 – Both consoles will be doing much better a year from now. Go read what the Cod devs just said yesterday on the resolution matter – they said it certainly can be done. They were getting tools from microsoft during development.

Just like this gen – games 5 years from now will look better than they do today.

Obviously XB can hit 1080P – Forza is 1080P 60fps / UFC is 1080P / NBA 2k14 is natvie 1080P on the XBox. So this idea that it can’t do it is a little rediculous and being blown out of proportion.

Just go look at the digital foundry side-by-side comparison of BF4 720P vs PS4 1080P. The differences are minimal – some actually are saying the textures up close look better on Xbox.

Unless you are looking at both side by side – you’ll never know.

The Xbox is also able to do other things that the PS4 can’t while playing. So there is a trade-off aspect as well.

You can have 4 apps running in the background with snapping ability – so you could be listening to free music on iheart radio, or listening to a youtube music playlist while playing. And you can do that without having to be forced to subscribe to Music Unlimited.

I enjoyed reading the PS4 article as well as this one. I think one overlooked item that comes along with the cloud is the fact that all Xbox One games will have dedicated servers.

Obviously PS4 has dedis also, but if you read on Killzone Shadow Falls servers work – it is not a true dedicated server. Which I guess that point goes into your statement that the Xbox Live will probably be a better experience online. That makes it simple for the user, but the reasons go beyond connectivity when you add the reputation system – smart-matchmaking, it will be interesting to see how much those features are enjoyed.

It may end up sucking just as bad as the reputation system now on Xbox Live, but at least when reading about it – it seems pretty good.